On April 20, 1940, France in jué àng saw two glimmers of light. The two heroes of the last World War, Betan and Wei Gang returned to France in distress one after another. The former became the deputy prime minister of the French government, while the latter became the chief of staff of the Ministry of National Defense, the commander-in-chief of the Army and the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces.

"Marson, General, it's good that you come."

On the morning of the 20th, at Wansen Castle, General Gan Molin, who was dismissed, was completely disgraced and welcomed Betton and Wei Gang with a group of ugly-looking staff.

Although he removed Paul Renault from the position of commander-in-chief on the 18th, he temporarily served as commander-in-chief for several days before Wei Gang arrived. On the afternoon of the 19th, because the situation on the battlefield deteriorated too quickly, he had to make two important decisions and order the 2nd Army surrounded on the west bank of the Maas River to break through and order the Belgian British and French coalition forces to transfer to France to avoid being surrounded by the German army. However, the latter of these two orders, the order to transfer the British and French coalition forces in Belgium has not been implemented yet. After all, withdrawing hundreds of thousands of troops from Belgium is a very complicated task.

"Morris, is the situation bad now?" General Wei Gang immediately asked about the situation on the front line.

"Very bad, and unprecedented!" Gan Molin sighed and shook his head and said, "General, it's not 1914 now. We are facing a new model of war. The huge number of infantry and artillery has almost no place to use it. Armored units with high mobility and strong combat power are the masters of the ground battlefield. And the role of air superiority in a battle has reached a decisive level. In these two aspects, we are completely behind..."

Beden and Wei Gang exchanged glances with each other. Although they were old, they were not old-fashioned and had long realized the role of mechanized troops. However, France's national policy is defense. If the "Magino" defense line is well guarded, everything will be fine. No one will spend valuable military expenses to study the problem of attacking mechanized troops.

Although military theorists like Charles de Gaulle can imagine the mode of tank legion combat, a large number of military exercises are indispensable to turn the imagined theories into practical tactics.

Therefore, although there are a large number of tanks in France, there are also many officers among the middle and high-level military officials who attach importance to the theory of armored warfare. However, in the actual application of mechanized troops, the level of the French Army is not a little worse than that of the German Army.

"So, do you have any suggestions for the next step of the battle?" General Wei Gang and Gan Molin asked a question while walking towards the war room.

"The 2nd Army must break through to Lance as soon as possible," Gan Molin said with a frown, "The breakthrough started early this morning, but it was not smooth. The troops suffered a lot of losses when they broke through, and then they were chased by German armored troops."

In fact, the German army surrounded the 2nd Army of the French Army were mainly infantry, and only the 11th Armored Regiment under the 6th Armored Division (the main forces of the 5th Armored Division, the 8th Armored Division and the 6th Armored Division have already gone south to Verdun), but they still chased and defeated a large number of French troops that broke through, almost causing the latter to collapse.

Gan Molin thought, "Although the losses are heavy, some troops will eventually arrive in Lance. They can be used as seed troops to expand new armored and motorized troops.

In addition, some troops should be withdrawn from the Magino line as much as possible... The Germans occupied Verdun on the 19th and are now attacking Tule. If they occupy Tule, no, they do not need to occupy, they only need to destroy the railway near Tule, the speed of our pulling troops from the Magino line will slow down by 70%. If the Germans assaulted near Langre, it will be difficult for us to draw troops from the Magino line again."

"Can't you stop them?" Wei Gang's face looked extremely ugly. He knew that the main force of the French army is now in Belgium or on the Maginot defense line. And most of them are still on the Maginot defense line! If these two main clusters are surrounded by the Germans, wouldn't he, the commander-in-chief, be alone?

"I'm afraid it's difficult..." Gan Molin said with a sad face, "The German armored cluster has very strong attack power and is moving quickly, and ordinary infantry can't stop them at all."

"In other words, most of the troops on the Magino defense line will be surrounded?" Wei Gang felt like he had fallen into the fire pit.

"I think yes," said Ganmolin, "so we have to save the troops trapped in Belgium, so I have ordered them to break through as soon as possible, with the first choice being to consider breaking through from land to Paris."

Wei Gang nodded, "They must break through successfully, they will be the main force surrounding Paris!"

Historically, because troops could be drawn from the Maginot Line, General Wei Gang was not in a hurry to allow the French army in Belgium to break through, so he canceled the order issued by Gan Molin on the 19th.

However, now General Wei Gang cannot cancel Gan Molin's order, otherwise he, the commander-in-chief, could only rely on newly built troops that lacked officers and non-commissioned officers to resist the attack of the German army.

...

"Mr. Prime Minister, what's going on?"

On the same day that Betan and Weigang arrived in Paris, British Prime Minister Churchill also flew over from London.

"General Weigang has taken office," Paul Renault tried hard to do everything that is still under control. "And the 2nd Army also highlighted the German encirclement and is currently advancing towards Lance. In addition, we have formed a new armored division, light mechanized division and motorized infantry division. I believe the situation will gradually get better."

"That's really great," Churchill nodded with a smile, as if he was confident about France's future. "What about the situation in Belgium? Can our troops in Belgium stand out smoothly?"

"No problem," said Paul Renault. "On the afternoon of the 19th, General Ganmolin ordered a breakout."

"Oh, that's it." Churchill nodded.

He had known this for a long time, but he did not have much hope for whether hundreds of thousands of troops could break through the land. Because these hundreds of thousands of troops would soon be pocketed by the Germans, and even if they could break through, they would still be chased by the German armored troops.

Moreover, even if some of the main forces can escape, they will still escape to Paris...

Churchill paused, as if he was considering the words, "Mr. Prime Minister, now the coalition has a new commander-in-chief, this is the beginning of a turning point, but the Belgian coalition has no new commander."

Renault understood Churchill's meaning, and said: "The coalition forces did not fight well in Belgium, so there should be a new commander-in-chief. Prime Minister, can anyone recommend you? "

"Yes," said Churchill, "I recommend General Verick, the commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force! He is an amazing soldier and will surely lead the troops out of the predicament."

Renault thought for a while and felt that it was nothing to let a British officer command some coalition forces, so he nodded and agreed to Churchill's suggestion.

However, at this time, Prime Minister Paul Renault would never have thought that Churchill had ordered the Admiralty to formulate a plan to organize the retreat of the expeditionary force on the 19th, code-named "Operation Generator".

...

"Where has the 1st Armored Army been?"

In the German General Staff of Tsoson, Marshal Hessmann once again asked about the movements of the 1st Armored Army. Of course, he knew about the "Generator Operation" and the "Dunkirk Miracle", but he did not intend to let the British succeed!

Hitler is basically a political leader now, and he doesn't care much about the specific military command operations. Because a series of military operations such as restoring the compulsory military service system, entering the Rhineland, annexing the Czech Republic, invading Poland, etc., were dominated by the German Wehrmacht. Therefore, Hitler's prestige in the army was not too high, and he himself was not very confident in the military, so it was impossible for him to interfere with the command of a bunch of marshals, generals, and generals.

So the decision to fight Dunkirk now is in the hands of Hessman, Harmanstein and Ronderstead, and it has nothing to do with Hitler.

"The vanguard of the 1st Armored Army has arrived in the English Channel!" Halder took the report from a staff officer, took a look and shouted excitedly, "Near Abbeville."

"Abvell?" Hessman thought for a while, "It's more than 100 kilometers away from Calais and Dunkirk!"

Now the passage of the British and French forces to withdraw from Paris by land has been cut off, but they can still retreat by sea.

"On the 24th, we can occupy Calais and Dunkirk at the latest on the 24th," said Hard. "And, our naval planes deployed in Heinsberg County can fly to Calais and Dunkirk."

"A plane alone is not enough to annihilate the enemies retreating from sea," Hessman said to himself. "It takes only 75 kilometers to retreat from Dunkirk to get to the UK. If the British mobilize civilian ships for rushing transportation, they can still withdraw people..."

"Start bombarding the port facilities in Dunkirk and Calais!" Hessman gave the order.

In the original plan, there was no intention to bomb the ports of Calais and Dunkirk (actually, Hessman had plans, but he didn't say it at the beginning), because these two ports could be used by the German army to land on the British mainland.

"Okay, I'll make arrangements right away." Halder had no objection. Because the bombing port does not require ground-to-ground support aircraft such as ju87 and HS-1, there is no need to even use ju88. Just take a photo of He-111. There are not many tasks for these horizontal bombers now.
Chapter completed!